Diluting S.F. Water Dept. Authority / Regional district would end autocratic rule

MARK SIMON

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, January 15, 2000

2000-01-15 04:00:00 PDT Regional -- The state legislative analyst's office says it's quite possible and relatively simple to create a regional water district to replace the autocratic stewardship of the San Francisco Water Department.

But politically, it will take a regional vote to create such a regional body, and it may even require amending federal legislation that created the Hetch Hetchy water system in 1913.

Still, it's good news for those of us starved for any sign that there might be a way out from under the self- centered thumb of San Francisco.

Because it can never be said too often, let me repeat what is becoming a wordy, but no less important, mantra.

There are 2.3 million customers of the San Francisco Water Department -- 700,000 of them in San Francisco and 1.6 million of them (us) in the suburbs. Yet, most customers have no voice in how the department is managed, the setting of water rates or access to department- controlled lands, such as the vast but untouchable Crystal Springs watershed.

The question of who runs the water department is particularly important because SFPUC General Manager Anson Moran acknowledged before the San Mateo County supervisors a few months ago that about $2.3 billion will be needed to repair earthquake damage to the system and update the system hardware.

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Moran also acknowledged that there is no overall plan to make the repairs, only a series of individual proposals. He also said the suburban water customers would have to help pay for the repairs.

Braced by that knowledge, state Sen. Lou Papan, D-Millbrae, won approval for an audit of the water department by the state auditor and asked legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill to outline how a regional water authority might be established.

The answer is that a joint powers authority could be formed by all the entities involved in the water department -- San Francisco and the suburban water districts. Or, a regional water district could be created by the state Legislature.

If San Francisco resists either effort, it might be necessary to amend the 1913 Raker Act, the federal legislation that created the Hetch Hetchy system, Hill said.

Ed Randolph, legislative aide to Papan, said the next step will be to consult with the legislative counsel and begin the process of drafting legislation to create a new regional water power, most likely a joint powers authority. CALL TO ORDER: A year ago, the San Mateo County supervisors had a proposed meeting schedule that would have required them to meet only 26 times a year -- about twice a month.

That prompted much squawking that the board was meeting too little and appeared to be doing less and less business in public. Mixed into that was the sense that the board was not really debating in public, and that supervisors were arriving at meetings having already made up their minds on important issues.

That, in turn, prompted a promise from several board members that they would meet far in excess of 26 times, and that there was a need to conduct more business in public.

Well, at the end of 1999, the board met 33 times in regular sessions, plus three more times in special meetings for the purpose of long-term planning, for a total of 36 meetings.

And the schedule for this year calls for 31 regular meetings, five days of budget meetings, and another five meetings around the county for long-term planning. That's 41 meetings, a real improvement over 26 and a large step in the right direction. LA VIE EN ROSE: San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson objected to a small item here this week about the change in how the board selects its president. The item noted that the change in rotation meant Jacobs Gibson would be passed over for president.

Jacobs Gibson wants the permanent record to reflect that she doesn't feel slighted by the change -- that she voted for the change.

In fact, she said, she hadn't even thought about the board presidency until the matter was raised by one of her colleagues.

"I've got my own projects and my own issues and I'm not really thinking about who's president or who isn't president. Anybody who thinks I might have been slighted should have asked me if I felt slighted. I didn't," she said. LOOKING AHEAD: A brief reference here some weeks ago to a possible Y3K problem prompted a reassuring note from Howard Frolich.

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"Y3K will not be worrisome -- we won't have a repeat of our present problem until we get to Y10K, when it will be necessary for computers to confront five-digit years," he wrote.

I'm going to let someone else worry about that one.

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